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Operation Filmmaker
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    83
    Operation Filmmaker takes a thrilling left turn from its original conceit, and Davenport does a nice job rolling with the punches.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    The film's parallels between Mohmed's travails and the Iraq war are forced, but overall this is a fascinating odyssey that never plays out in ways you would expect.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    This gut punch of a documentary will knock you for a loop. File it under "no good deed goes unpunished."
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    Operation Filmmaker is eventually about Muthana blackmailing Davenport by withholding access to him as she fruitlessly seeks a happy ending for her film. "Now, I'm just looking for an exit strategy," she finally concludes.
  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    For all her own frustrations, Davenport is honest enough not to gloss over the fact that what Muthana's adventures in the screen trade taught him was to hustle, toady and ingratiate himself to useful people. And she helped.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    It spreads the punishment around, from the executive suites of Hollywood to the mean streets of Baghdad. Everyone here comes out smelling bad - that's why the film's so good.
  7. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    Operation Filmmaker doesn't quite shake out as a microcosm of the American-Iraq relationship, although Davenport cheekily toys with the conceit. But the movie is endlessly resonant.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    60
    Davenport herself seems stunned by how complicated the story turns out to be, which just makes her movie all the more worthwhile.
  9. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    60
    A fable for our reality-TV reality, Nina Davenport's Operation Filmmaker is as much virus as video documentary. This essentially comic tale maps a contagion of mutual exploitation that seems to have burnished the careers of everyone involved.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    60
    Although Ms. Davenport pushes the analogy between this modest rescue operation with America's invasion of Iraq a bit too forcefully, she nonetheless makes her point with persuasive, touching candor.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    60
    Picture raises pithy questions sure to provoke animated discussions pro and con. Credit Davenport for a mostly unbiased presentation that presents her own disenchantment in a balanced manner.
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